6 | ENERGY OMV New Zealand T Global strategy - page 8 Natural gas industry big investor OMV Māui’s onshore production facility. “Having gas domestically available and creating much lower emissions than coal, it is a much better alternative,” says Henrik Mosser, MD of OMV Zealand. Methanol is the basis for urea fertilisers, the raw product for paints and silicone, an important component for wind turbines or components for electric vehicles — in fact methanol is a key building block for almost everything made by human hands. “While a portion of the gas is burnt to generate heat, a major portion is converted into products, which do not create emissions. “The other important part of the oil and gas industry is that it is a big investor in New Zealand. OMV New Zealand alone is currently investing over NZ$500 million in getting more gas out of domestic fields by big drilling campaigns that commenced at the beginning of last year. Those campaigns are off the Taranaki Coast. That means we need to bring in floating drilling rigs mostly from Europe to drill wells. More wells means more gas from existing fields.” OMV’s investments means jobs — not only directly through who it employs, but there is a big service contractor industry that is linked to oil and gas. Then you have all the industries and companies that need gas to produce their own products and cannot easily convert to electricity. T from page 4 “There are high temperature industries like steel manufacturers that cannot easily switch to electricity as an alternative. Until you have something else like hydrogen or enough biomass available, gas is currently the most viable fuel, These industries also need time to convert their whole fuel system into something new, and it needs to be a viable investment for them.” Until the alternative fuels and infrastructure are readily available and viable for Kiwi users, natural gas will continue to play a starring role in our daily lives, and the economy. Specialists in: Proud to support OMV New Zealand Ltd • Health Monitoring • Asbestos Assessors • Dust & Chemical Monitoring • Noise Assessments • Health & Safety Systems • Pre-employment Medicals • COVID-19 Testing • Respirator Fit Testing 169 De Havilland Drive, Bell Block reception@workingforhealth.co.nz www.workingforhealth.co.nz Proud to support OMV New Zealand
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=